Getting back to Boston

Routine recovery run at 9:30 pace. No problem with the feet today, although they both look like hamburger after yesterday's sock-free last 3 miles.

I'm tweaking the schedule again to allow a better taper for Dam Night Run. Recovery tonight, run two hard nights in a row on Monday and Tuesday, a recovery run on Wednesday, off Thursday-Friday, then an easy jog Saturday morning before going to Arkadelphia. I just realized this will be my first race in (OK, near) my hometown since, oh, April 1976. This was going to be a back-off week anyway. I think yesterday showed me I really needed a back-off week right now, so now's a good time. Then I go back to hammering next week.

The goal for Saturday is sub-22:00. I'll try to run the first two miles at right around 7:00 pace, then hopefully put the hammer down on the downhill third mile to get under 22. Maybe, if I can carry out that plan well enough, quite a bit under 22. 

Just a routine 8 mile GA run, as Pete calls it -- one mile of warmup, 3.5 miles at 9:22 pace (roughly MP + 20%), then 3.5 at 8:41 (MP + 10%). Also had strides scheduled for tonight, but skipped them. I'll do enough fast running Saturday night for one week.

I'm a little concerned about my weight. Weighed this morning at work, fully clothed with my walkie-talkie in my pocket, and I weighed less than 160. That means probably 155-156 if I'd weighed after my shower, for instance. I know I haven't been eating enough (and I also know why), and I need to correct that. I think 155 is probably a good weight for me to, say, take to Memphis, but I want to stabilize there and not do a lot of fluctuating. Can't fix the problem right away, but hopefully that situation will resolve itself soon. The sleep situation seems to be working itself out pretty well; I'm feeling more rested after getting caught up Saturday.

Another 8 miles tomorrow, most likely, then mini-taper for the 5K. I REALLY want to bust this one, and I'll be pretty disappointed if I don't get under 22:00. Wouldn't rule out 21:00, either; that would take 6:45, and I was running around 7:00 pretty comfortably at Firecracker.

Very pleased with this run. Started out as just a boring treadmill GA at 9:22 pace: I wasn't even sure if I was going to run four miles or eight. But I decided to throw in some fartlek -- MP, then some faster surges, then back to MP for the final mile. Handled it very well, even a 200-meter segment at 6:00 pace, which is probably darn near all-out for me right now, and obviously it became an eight-miler.

So, with all those surges, the average pace wound up at 8:52. And max HR was 157, with average HR in the low 140s (didn't exactly start and stop the Garmin at the right times, so the average may be a little off). But it was a good workout going into the mini-taper for the 5K.

Thank goodness for the TM. It's been either 100 degrees or very close to it for the past five or six days, and it's not cooling off any time soon. I still sweat profusely on the TM, but heatstroke is not an issue.

Routine four-miler on the TM. Started at 6.0, slowly advanced to 6.5 during the run (I get bored and want to get it over with; my road runs tend to be the same way). Really no trouble with the legs after back-to-back 8-milers; if I'm gonna get DOMS, it hasn't happened yet.

It's race day and ... it's just ridiculously hot. Car thermometer read 86 degrees at 7 a.m. and I didn't even park in direct sunlight.

Took the last two days off to taper for the race. I don't feel much stronger, but at least I got a solid night of sleep last night after several nights of flipflopping and not sleeping much. Got through work yesterday on pure adrenaline and I think the adrenaline ran out about 2:30 in the afternoon. I think I was asleep within five minutes of saying good night to Pam, which is a nice change.

Got up this morning and went down to the state Capitol to run with the Crackheads. It was the usual route up into the Heights; I decided to cut it down to 5 miles, so turned around at Palm Street and retraced my steps. As usual with Tom's courses, the Garmin says it was more than 5. All the stragglers thought I was hauling-A because I was on the way back so early, but I really was running slower than usual (9:40 average including the downhill return leg), I just ran less than most people. Pat left an hour earlier on his 14-miler; his car was in the lot when I got there at 5:30.

So the plan now is to go back to bed for a while, take it easy this afternoon and head for Arkadelphia somewhere around 5:30. Pam wants to attend a going-away party for one of the psychiatrists at her hospital at 5, so I'm not sure how this is going to work out, but she knows I want to be at the race site no later than 7 -- about the time the temperature goes back below 100.

Update after the race. But no sub-21. Or 22. Or 23. Or 24. It was still 95 or so when I got to the site an hour before the scheduled start (notice I said scheduled; more on that later). Got my packet and bib easily enough, then lined up to get a ride up the hill to the start. The vehicle of choice was a lumber yard truck, stacked with 2x12s to serve as benches. That ride scared the HELL out of me. Thirty mph, twisting road, nothing to hold on to. I think my HR got as high on that truck as it did during the race.

So we get up to the top, the truck disgorges us and goes back down for another load (this pattern would continue for the next hour-plus; I got to the top 35 minutes before the scheduled start). Went for a mile jog to loosen up, then stretched. So far so good. Still hot, but the sun's behind the trees so not too bad. Around 10 til, went to line up. Then I see the trucks unloading again up the road. Then again, 15 minutes later. Then again. Finally, with me standing in the mob for 45 minutes in 90-plus degree heat and nothing to drink, they start the race at 8:35 or so.

Despite the large number of people on a narrow road, it was not too difficult to get my pace going. I hit the first mile in just about what I had hoped. But the legs are not feeling good. Is it dehydration, is it tightening up standing on the road, is it the effects of running five miles this morning, all of the above, or something else? Anyway, I keep pushing, for a while. Then the walk monster jumped on me. Then jumped on me again. Then again. I've gone fast enough early that I didn't get passed by too many people even while walking. I can't see my Garmin (it's completely dark by now), but I have a pretty good idea my sub-22 is out the window. Then I realize I'm on the final downhill and pick up the pace, then as I turned off the downhill and into the parking lot where the finish is located, I'm hauling-A and passing all kinds of people. Got to the line and click off my timer: 24:03; gun time is 24:08 or so (no chips here), maxed out at 170 HR, same as at Firecracker.

Mile splits, from the Garmin: 6:58 (good), 7:09 (not too bad), 9:00 (yuck), and the last 0.17 at 5:30 pace (registered as more than race distance, as usual). Official results: 144th among men, 15th in my age group, time 24:04.70.

Obviously, I have to work on my discipline. I give in all to easily to the walk monster, even on flat parts of the course, and the walk monster is not going to get me to Boston. And I should have paid more attention to hydration; I figured it wouldn't be a big deal in a 23-minute race, but it was the hour-plus before the race that got me. And I have to remember that I haven't been training for 5Ks; I haven't done a tempo run in weeks, and haven't done intervals in longer than that. I'm trying to run 5Ks off marathon training, hoping that better endurance would substitute for lack of specific training.

Oh well, my 5K season is over. Next race, a 20K in two months, by which time I'll be up to 60 mpw if training goes well. If I run the same overall pace then as I did tonight (including the walk monster), I'll be very pleased. But there's a lot of work to be done to be able to run 12 miles at 7:36 pace.